Analysis: Can Apple still be the challenger brand?

It is one of the world's best-loved brands, with some of the most passionate fans on the planet. But is Apple beginning to act like the very brand it set out to crush?

Even the most loyal PC user can't help but admire the Apple brand. Whether it is their sleek product design or undeniably brilliant business models, they are a game changing company, and they deservedly won the adoration of legions of fans worldwide. We're talking Justin Bieber hysteria at every product launch, and the sales to match.

I would consider myself an admirer - particularly from a brand perspective - and indeed I generate (small) revenue from the Apple brand.

But recent events suggest the good folks over at Cupertino need to do some soul searching. I'm not talking mass overhaul, but if they genuinely care about their brand, they may need to address a few concerns that have began to disillusion even some of their most faithful.

Here's ten examples:

1. The Great App purge.

In February 2010, Apple culled over 5000 apps from the App store. To be fair, a lot were mindless trash. But the issue is not the removal, it was the selective removal. Playboy and Sports Illustrated to this day, for example, still have applications live that offers little more than those deleted.

Cue Phil Schiller, Apple's VP of Marketing when quizzed on the subject:

'The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format," he told The New York Times.

In other words, screw the little guy - but a mass media company is fine to put out almost exactly the same content? Wait up, Apple, weren't you that little guy in 1976?

2. Ssshhh.

The constant veil of secrecy and tight security at Apple is becoming tiresome and again not representative of an engaging, challenger brand.

Whilst the new movement toward crowd-sourcing is inspiring successful start ups like Threadless, and encouraging increasing amounts of consumer engagement, Apple is moving the other direction.

Apple's image today is a fortress, full of scurrying security and paranoid lawyers.

Doesn't the challenger brand engage with the media, and indeed use them to their advantage?

Ask any journalist about the standard response from Apple when it comes to information requests.

'Apple does not comment on its business practices...' is the attitude of the dominant market leader, too big, too inert, too invincible to have to bother.

Developers? Good luck being able to find one who will speak about their experiences with Cupertino. The non-disclosure requirements mean they are bound to be tight lipped. Who is going to stir the honey pot when everyone is getting fat?

3. The cash.

At the recent unveiling of the iPad, Steve Jobs opened with some 'updates'.

Once the applause finally died down, he started with some feel good statistics.

But in the same breath as telling the audience how good it feels to be opening stores all over the world and allowing the general public to come and experience the brand, he then reveals Apple is now a '$50 billion company' and goes on to boast they are bigger than Nokia.

'Its not something we focus on at Apple...' he went on to say.

So why say it?

The image from the garage where it all started in 1976 is still up on the screen - and you start talking about market dominance? Surely a 'sincere thanks to the legions of fans for putting us where we are' speech is that of a CEO more in touch with his brands positioning.

Or how about a "you know what, we've just sold our 250 millionth iPod and so in celebration we are making the next 250 million downloads on iTunes free"?

4. Paranoia.

Sending the police around to a young technology reporter's apartment, bashing his door down in the process of some frenzied panic attack over maintaining secrecy is not the approach typically associated with 'lovemarks' like Apple.

Apple, you missed a trick here.

Lufthansa ended up having the kudos as the 'poking fun at the establishment' position here by offering the Apple employee who lost the yet-to-be released phone a free trip to Germany to enjoy a real German beer. Brilliant. Even Dilbert got in on the act.

5. The public apology.

OK, so we're getting off the technology beat here, but the daytime TV show 'Ellen' pulls in over five million viewers an episode in the US.

She aspires to have the highest number of Twitter followers in the world - (she currently has over 4 and a half million). She may not be everyone's cup of tea, but she is known for being off beat and this week featured on the show a parody of an Apple ad featuring her trying to send a text message on the iPhone.

Good natured, light hearted stuff.

How did Apple react? By chastising her into making an apology the following show.

Sorry? I can't help but think this was not thought through at all.

Steve - ask yourself what Richard [Branson] would have done. Demand an apology? I don't think so.

How about jumping on a plane to the next filming and going on the show, disarming the critics by having a laugh like everyone else? Give everyone in the audience a free iPad. Gosh, one better, offer Ellen the chance to make the next Apple ad for real!

That is the character of a challenger brand that has not lost its soul in spite of its size.

Read on to page two for five more reasons...

6. Thou shall be exempt.

When last week Australia's competition regulator the ACCC announced some new rules concerning mobile phone warranties being extended to the life of their service contracts.

Great news for the consumer, everybody wins. Except those people that bought an iPhone.

Those consumers will have a reconditioned handset offered to then for $288.

Regardless of whether or not it is enforced in practice - by the very nature of this issue being raised we are again seeing a brand flexing its muscles, wielding its market power over the very people that put the brand there in the first place.

7. There's a trademark for that.

Woolworths is one thing - even if the logos weren't particularly similar. But Apple, when you set your lawyers on a small Australian developer in seaside Sydney, you are really losing touch.

The Little App factory, hardly a multinational by any stretch, was happily selling an application, 'iPodRip' designed to save the consumer heartache over losing entire libraries of music should the hardware crash (probably running Flash, Steve?).

However, the usage of 'pod' by this company was deemed to be in breach and the orders were made: No use of the iPod or Apple-related imagery, and relinquish the website.

Apple have a right to protect their trademarks, but when the enquiry was made to Mr Jobs, the reply was simply 'Change the Apps name. Not that big of a deal'.

Again, Apple may be in the right. But from a brand perspective, everything is wrong.

The irony is the Little App factory is exactly the brand Apple needs to be.

A quick visit to their website and you notice that they were so touched by the Haiti tragedy they immediately donated $10,000 to Doctors without Borders and gave a percentage of sales from their Apps that month to the same charity. That lifted their donation to around $15,000 but in the interests of rounding decided to donate $20,000 instead.

Imagine that sort of thinking when you sell tens of millions of product a month.

8. We have [to have] control.

Details are still to fully emerge about iAd.

But according to the Wall Street Journal it looks like, at least initially, control over advertising will be in the hands of Apple. The approval process? Yes. But sorry? The creative as well?

Apple will be designing the advertising themselves.

"As a creative director, I can completely understand that they created this new baby and they want to make sure it gets born looking gorgeous," said Lars Bastholm, chief digital creative officer at WPP's Ogilvy told the Journal. "But as a creative director, I don't feel completely comfortable letting Apple do the creative."

9. Anti-trust.

Google the Apple brand name. How long is it before you start seeing the news results with the words anti-trust mentioned. Need we say anymore?

10. Even the Daily Show is getting laughs at your expense.

Comedian Jon Stewart, I believe, has put it best in regard to the Apple brand losing its shine.

"You guys are busting down doors in Palo Alto, while Commandant Gates is ridding the world of mosquitoes. What the f**k is going on?"

Darren Winterford is a former global brand manager and sometime [disgruntled] Apple fan.